204 lines
9.8 KiB
HTML
204 lines
9.8 KiB
HTML
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<title>The GNU C Preprocessor Internals: Token Spacing</title>
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<a name="Token-Spacing"></a>
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<div class="header">
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<p>
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Next: <a href="Line-Numbering.html#Line-Numbering" accesskey="n" rel="next">Line Numbering</a>, Previous: <a href="Macro-Expansion.html#Macro-Expansion" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Macro Expansion</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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</div>
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<hr>
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<a name="Token-Spacing-1"></a>
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<h2 class="unnumbered">Token Spacing</h2>
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<a name="index-paste-avoidance"></a>
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<a name="index-spacing"></a>
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<a name="index-token-spacing"></a>
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<p>First, consider an issue that only concerns the stand-alone
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preprocessor: there needs to be a guarantee that re-reading its preprocessed
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output results in an identical token stream. Without taking special
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measures, this might not be the case because of macro substitution.
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For example:
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</p>
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<div class="smallexample">
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<pre class="smallexample">#define PLUS +
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#define EMPTY
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#define f(x) =x=
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+PLUS -EMPTY- PLUS+ f(=)
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→ + + - - + + = = =
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<em>not</em>
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→ ++ -- ++ ===
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</pre></div>
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<p>One solution would be to simply insert a space between all adjacent
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tokens. However, we would like to keep space insertion to a minimum,
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both for aesthetic reasons and because it causes problems for people who
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still try to abuse the preprocessor for things like Fortran source and
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Makefiles.
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</p>
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<p>For now, just notice that when tokens are added (or removed, as shown by
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the <code>EMPTY</code> example) from the original lexed token stream, we need
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to check for accidental token pasting. We call this <em>paste
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avoidance</em>. Token addition and removal can only occur because of macro
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expansion, but accidental pasting can occur in many places: both before
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and after each macro replacement, each argument replacement, and
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additionally each token created by the ‘<samp>#</samp>’ and ‘<samp>##</samp>’ operators.
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</p>
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<p>Look at how the preprocessor gets whitespace output correct
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normally. The <code>cpp_token</code> structure contains a flags byte, and one
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of those flags is <code>PREV_WHITE</code>. This is flagged by the lexer, and
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indicates that the token was preceded by whitespace of some form other
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than a new line. The stand-alone preprocessor can use this flag to
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decide whether to insert a space between tokens in the output.
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</p>
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<p>Now consider the result of the following macro expansion:
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</p>
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<div class="smallexample">
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<pre class="smallexample">#define add(x, y, z) x + y +z;
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sum = add (1,2, 3);
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→ sum = 1 + 2 +3;
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</pre></div>
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<p>The interesting thing here is that the tokens ‘<samp>1</samp>’ and ‘<samp>2</samp>’ are
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output with a preceding space, and ‘<samp>3</samp>’ is output without a
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preceding space, but when lexed none of these tokens had that property.
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Careful consideration reveals that ‘<samp>1</samp>’ gets its preceding
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whitespace from the space preceding ‘<samp>add</samp>’ in the macro invocation,
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<em>not</em> replacement list. ‘<samp>2</samp>’ gets its whitespace from the
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space preceding the parameter ‘<samp>y</samp>’ in the macro replacement list,
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and ‘<samp>3</samp>’ has no preceding space because parameter ‘<samp>z</samp>’ has none
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in the replacement list.
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</p>
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<p>Once lexed, tokens are effectively fixed and cannot be altered, since
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pointers to them might be held in many places, in particular by
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in-progress macro expansions. So instead of modifying the two tokens
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above, the preprocessor inserts a special token, which I call a
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<em>padding token</em>, into the token stream to indicate that spacing of
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the subsequent token is special. The preprocessor inserts padding
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tokens in front of every macro expansion and expanded macro argument.
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These point to a <em>source token</em> from which the subsequent real token
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should inherit its spacing. In the above example, the source tokens are
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‘<samp>add</samp>’ in the macro invocation, and ‘<samp>y</samp>’ and ‘<samp>z</samp>’ in the
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macro replacement list, respectively.
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</p>
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<p>It is quite easy to get multiple padding tokens in a row, for example if
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a macro’s first replacement token expands straight into another macro.
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</p>
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<div class="smallexample">
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<pre class="smallexample">#define foo bar
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#define bar baz
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[foo]
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→ [baz]
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</pre></div>
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<p>Here, two padding tokens are generated with sources the ‘<samp>foo</samp>’ token
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between the brackets, and the ‘<samp>bar</samp>’ token from foo’s replacement
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list, respectively. Clearly the first padding token is the one to
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use, so the output code should contain a rule that the first
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padding token in a sequence is the one that matters.
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</p>
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<p>But what if a macro expansion is left? Adjusting the above
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example slightly:
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</p>
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<div class="smallexample">
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<pre class="smallexample">#define foo bar
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#define bar EMPTY baz
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#define EMPTY
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[foo] EMPTY;
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→ [ baz] ;
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</pre></div>
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<p>As shown, now there should be a space before ‘<samp>baz</samp>’ and the
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semicolon in the output.
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</p>
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<p>The rules we decided above fail for ‘<samp>baz</samp>’: we generate three
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padding tokens, one per macro invocation, before the token ‘<samp>baz</samp>’.
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We would then have it take its spacing from the first of these, which
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carries source token ‘<samp>foo</samp>’ with no leading space.
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</p>
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<p>It is vital that cpplib get spacing correct in these examples since any
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of these macro expansions could be stringified, where spacing matters.
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</p>
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<p>So, this demonstrates that not just entering macro and argument
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expansions, but leaving them requires special handling too. I made
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cpplib insert a padding token with a <code>NULL</code> source token when
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leaving macro expansions, as well as after each replaced argument in a
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macro’s replacement list. It also inserts appropriate padding tokens on
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either side of tokens created by the ‘<samp>#</samp>’ and ‘<samp>##</samp>’ operators.
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I expanded the rule so that, if we see a padding token with a
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<code>NULL</code> source token, <em>and</em> that source token has no leading
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space, then we behave as if we have seen no padding tokens at all. A
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quick check shows this rule will then get the above example correct as
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well.
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</p>
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<p>Now a relationship with paste avoidance is apparent: we have to be
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careful about paste avoidance in exactly the same locations we have
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padding tokens in order to get white space correct. This makes
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implementation of paste avoidance easy: wherever the stand-alone
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preprocessor is fixing up spacing because of padding tokens, and it
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turns out that no space is needed, it has to take the extra step to
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check that a space is not needed after all to avoid an accidental paste.
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The function <code>cpp_avoid_paste</code> advises whether a space is required
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between two consecutive tokens. To avoid excessive spacing, it tries
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hard to only require a space if one is likely to be necessary, but for
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reasons of efficiency it is slightly conservative and might recommend a
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space where one is not strictly needed.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<div class="header">
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<p>
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Next: <a href="Line-Numbering.html#Line-Numbering" accesskey="n" rel="next">Line Numbering</a>, Previous: <a href="Macro-Expansion.html#Macro-Expansion" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Macro Expansion</a>, Up: <a href="index.html#Top" accesskey="u" rel="up">Top</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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</div>
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